Judge challenges the ‘shyster’ public image

Lawyers tend to be seen either as pompous asses when most honourable, or sharp shysters when more businesslike ... Queensland Court of Appeal judge, Margaret White.
Photo: Rob Homer

by
Alex Boxsell

A rising tendency to treat the law as a business rather than a profession is doing little to counter the public’s view of lawyers as “sharp shysters", a senior Queensland judge said in a speech last week.

Queensland Court of Appeal judge
Margaret White
discussed the detriment of an overt business focus in the law at the Queensland Law Society annual dinner last Friday.

She said there was “an uneasy tension between the traditional features of the practice of law as a learned, honourable profession, enjoying important privileges, and the dictates of running a modern business challenged by the provision of legal services nationally and internationally including the intrusion of foreign lawyers onto the domestic scene".

Other senior judges, from former High Court judges Daryl Dawson and
Michael Kirby
to former NSW Chief Justice Jim Spigelman, have also spoken publicly of the dangers deviating from professional ideals.

Justice White reflected on the popularity of “lawyer jokes on the internet". “Why is it so? Lawyers tend to be seen either as pompous asses when most honourable, or sharp shysters when more businesslike."

But she said lawyers collectively had improved their reputation via a dedication to pro bono work.

QLS president Annette Bradfield spoke of the growing awareness of widespread mental health problems among lawyers. She said this may be linked to the decline of professional ideals and the treatment of the law as a job rather than a career.

“Once it starts to resemble a job, that’s when we lose touch with why we do what we do, and it is not surprising that mental health issues may subsequently arise," she said.